[The chess room]

(Jorjie unpacks a headset from a box labelled “The Green Men”. She puts it on and green hands emerge from it, holding her head and covering her eyes with lenses.)

JORJIE: Cool.

[Camo]

(June is watching the news on a screen.)

REPORTER: Further updates reveal panic spreading throughout the city and around the country. Emergency services have been swamped with calls.
JUNE: Gryffen, where are you? Driver, why aren’t we moving?

(The driver is silhouetted behind a screen.)

DRIVER: The whole city is in chaos. This in turn is causing huge queues, making it impossible for emergency vehicles to get through to the hospital.

(June’s call gets through.)

GRYFFEN: June?
JUNE: Gryffen. Where have you been?
GRYFFEN: I was fixing a leak in the attic. Appalling weather we’ve been having.
JUNE: Where are Jorjie and the boys?
GRYFFEN: Doing homework last I looked. Why? Is something wrong?
JUNE: Get them, please.
GRYFFEN: I don’t think they’re doing anything…
JUNE: Just do it. (Gryffen walks away.) Driver, on my order be prepared to proceed with maximum speed to Professor Gryffen’s.
DRIVER: Yes, Inspector.

[The chess room]

(Gryffen enters. Jorjie still has the headset on.)

GRYFFEN: Jorjie? Jorjie, your mother’s on the… So, this is what you call “doing homework”, is it? Jorjie? Jorjie? (He goes to touch the headset. The hands grow spikes which cut his finger. He calls June.) June, you’d better get over here.

[The garage]

(Gryffen enters. Darius is in Mariah.)

GRYFFEN: Darius? There you are. I’ve been bellowing all day. I need your help. (He opens Mariah’s door. Darius has a headset on. It cuts Gryffen when he goes to remove it.)

[The main hall]

(Gryffen is carrying Darius.)

GRYFFEN: K9! Starkey! Chess room, pronto!

(Gryffen carries Darius into the chess room. June comes in through the front door.)

JUNE: Gryffen?
GRYFFEN: In the chess room!

[The chess room]

(Gryffen lays Darius down. June enters.)

JUNE: Gryffen?

(June sees Jorjie and approaches her.)

GRYFFEN: Don’t touch it. It’s razor sharp.
JUNE: What’s wrong with her?
GRYFFEN: I don’t know. I’m not a “doctor” doctor. We need to get them to a hospital.
JUNE: She’s got a steel claw around her head. No, she needs a scientist, not a doctor.
GRYFFEN: K9! Starkey! What if Starkey’s in the same state as these two? Starkey!

(Starkey and K9 enter.)

STARKEY: What is it, professor?
GRYFFEN: Thank goodness.
STARKEY: What’s happened to them?
K9: Vital signs are strong. No apparent tissue damage.
JUNE: If we could just get these ghastly things off…

(June reaches out.)

GRYFFEN: No, don’t touch it.
K9: Headsets’ self-defence capabilities are in operation.
GRYFFEN: Yes, it is. (He picks up the headset box.) What is this?
STARKEY: Are you serious? Where have you been the past few months?
GRYFFEN: I don’t get out of the house much.
STARKEY: It’s a network virtual reality game. Massive. Kids are mad about it.
K9: It’s a VR headset and interactive game controller.
GRYFFEN: If this device is causing this reaction in Jorjie and Darius then every child who’s playing is…
JUNE: It’s a national security matter. Parents are besieging hospitals with their kids.
K9: Calls received by emergency services in the last thirty minutes: 21 million. Calls featuring keywords “son”, “daughter”, “Little Green Men”, “VR”, “game” have appeared 19.98 million times.
GRYFFEN: 20 million? 20 million children like this?
K9: I detect a slight weakening of the VR system.
JUNE: No! (June pulls the headset off Jorjie. Gryffen does the same for Darius. They remain unresponsive.) Jorjie? Honey? Where are you?
GRYFFEN: It’s as if their minds have been wiped clean. Obviously some sort of signal is being delivered by the game which is disrupting neural processes, but what on Earth could do that?
K9: Nothing on Earth or in the rest of the cosmos, for that matter. My processors are programmed to detect 22 million systems of transmission from nine thousand worlds across ten thousand centuries. This unit detected nothing, therefore it doesn’t exist.
GRYFFEN: Perhaps it’s something you haven’t encountered.
K9: Unlikely. If it existed, the transmission would be of such power and sophistication that the architect could not possibly be unknown to this unit.

(June looks at the box.)

JUNE: “Brought to you by Green Room Entertainment.” I think I’ll pay a visit.
STARKEY: Me too.
JUNE: It’s a national security matter. The Department will handle this.
STARKEY: So, are we going to sit here and do nothing, K9?
K9: Negative.

(June nods her head resignedly. She, Starkey and K9 leave.)

[Outside Little Green Room headquarters]

(Starkey, June and K9 approach the door to the Little Green Room headquarters. June rings the doorbell.)

VOICE: Thanks for visiting Green Room Entertainment! How can we be of assistance?
JUNE: My name is Inspector June Turner of the Department.
VOICE: I’m sorry, but Senior VP John is unavailable at this time.
JUNE: I said of “the Department”.

(The doors open.)

[Green Room]

(Starkey, June and K9 enter a green room with a television display. John appears on it.)

STARKEY: A Custodian!
JOHN: Hi. Hello, there. This is Senior Vice-President John. I’m so, so sorry I can’t take your call at the moment, but leave a message and we’ll catch up real soon. Fantabulous.
JUNE: Thirty seconds before I order this lethal cyborg to level this place down to its foundations. Help us out, here.

(K9 flies upwards.)

K9: Doomsday weapon online. Armageddon mode activated. (Demonic voice) These are the end of days.
JUNE: Let us in, Senior VP John. Nineteen, eighteen…

(The screen disappears and a door opens. Starkey, June and K9 walk into a lift.)

[Lift]

JUNE: You said Custodians?
STARKEY: They run juvenile containment centres. I spent some time strapped in their VR education systems. They mess with your heads.

(The lift stops.)

[John’s room]

(Starkey, June and K9 enter a room of total blackness. John materialises.)

JOHN: Hi. Hello, there. Fantabulous to meet you.
JUNE: I’ve got some questions and you get one chance to answer right. Your company makes a game called The Little Green Men.
JOHN: That is one of Green Room Entertainment’s flagship properties.
JUNE: Do me a favour. Wipe that smile off your face. This game of yours appears to have hijacked the minds of millions of children. Now, how do we stop it?
JOHN: Green Room Entertainment is aware of the situation and is diligently working to resolve the problem. Normal programming will resume shortly.
JUNE: K9.
K9: (Demonic voice) These are the end of days.
JUNE: Where is the signal being delivered from?
JOHN: Presentation.
JUNE: And where’s that?
K9: (Demonic voice) I have become death, the destroyer of worlds. Despair, you all.
JOHN: Level 3. It’s on Level 3.
K9: Apocalypse averted. But only just. (An alarm sounds.) Alien detected! (He starts spinning.) Species, species, species, species, species…
JUNE: Starkey.
STARKEY: I have to go.

(Starkey leaves.)

[The chess room]

(Gryffen is examining Jorjie’s arm, which is covered in something green. He calls June.)

[John’s room]

(June answers her vidcom.)

JUNE: Gryffen, how’s Jorjie?
GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) Stable. Except for… There appears to be some sort of infection, hardening and discolouring of the skin.
JUNE: What’s happening to her?
GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) I don’t know, June. I told you, I’m not a “doctor” doctor.
JUNE: They’ve got no one else, Gryffen. I’ve got no one else.

[The chess room]

GRYFFEN: Yes, of course.
JUNE: (Over vidcom) Keep me updated.

(The call ends.)

[John’s room]

JUNE: Right, John. You and I are off to Level 3. We’re going to shut this broadcast of yours down.
JOHN: There’s no need. We’re on Level 3.
JUNE: There’s nothing being broadcast from here. I mean it, don’t mess with me.

(Thorne appears behind John.)

THORNE: I wouldn’t dream of it. Except, of course, that you’re messing with me.
JUNE: This is your operation.
THORNE: You would need a higher security clearance than you currently enjoy for me to confirm that.

[Corridors]

(K9 is flying along a corridor. Starkey runs behind him.)

K9: Alien detected! Species, species, species.
STARKEY: K9!
K9: Alien detected! Species, species, species. Alien detected!
STARKEY: K9!

(Starkey loses K9.)

[Etydion’s room]

(Starkey enters a dark room and pulls out his torch.)

K9: Alien detected! Species, species.
STARKEY: K9, where are you?

(Starkey looks around in the dark. K9 suddenly appears.)

K9: Starkey.
STARKEY: Don’t do that, K9. What is that? (An alien is attached to a machine.) K9, what’s that breathing? Can’t you get an ID?
K9: Negative. This lifeform does not match existing species in my memory banks. Logic says it should not exist.
STARKEY: What about creatures that don’t exist anymore? As in extinct ones?
K9: Obviously that had already occurred to me.
STARKEY: Really?
K9: Negative, not really. Scanning memory banks.

[The chess room]

(Gryffen takes a sample of the green substance from Darius’s arm. He calls K9.)

[Etydion’s room]

(K9 gets an alert.)

K9: Oh, rats. Gryffen.

[The chess room]

GRYFFEN: K9. What’s going on? Are you and Starkey safe?

[Etydion’s room]

STARKEY: Sweet, prof. How’s Jorjie and the other one?
GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) Starkey, we’re losing them. It’s some sort of infection. I’ve been doing tests but I can’t isolate it. The signal is unstable.
K9: Probably from proximity with the telepath.

[The chess room]

GRYFFEN: Telepath? Where?

[Etydion’s room]

K9: No time to babble now. Please examine one of the headsets.

[The chess room]

GRYFFEN: K9, are you hearing me? They have an infection. I’m going mad here trying to…
K9: (Over vidcom) This unit can hear pitches undetectable to any lifeform in this galaxy. I heard you, professor, now please examine the headset.

[Etydion’s room]

GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) What am I looking for?
K9: Glitches.

[The chess room]

GRYFFEN: Nobel Prize in Science, professorship at MIT and I’m taking orders from a dog.

[Etydion’s room]

STARKEY: Come on, K9, spit it out. You’re onto something.
K9: I believe I know how the signal is delivered. I was scanning for machine-based modes of delivery but omitting to scan for telepathic transmission. Even the most powerful telepaths would not be capable of sending thought impulses with anywhere near this intensity.
STARKEY: So, it’s controlling 20 million kids’ minds by telepathy.
K9: It’s an Etydion, the most powerful race of telepaths that ever lived. That’s why this unit did not scan for a neural signal. There is not meant to be a living Etydion left in the cosmos.
STARKEY: Why? What happened to them? Not galactic slavers again.
K9: No. Slavers were not needed. The Etydions willingly sold themselves. At one time, they were the most valuable commodity in the universe. With an Etydion in your invasion armada, a conqueror could broadcast a wave of fear so intense that an opposing army would simply drop their weapons and flee.
STARKEY: I don’t think I like these guys.
K9: Neither did the vanquished and conquered. They disliked them so much, they banded together and vapourised the Etydion homeworld.
STARKEY: Bummer. So, why’s it tied up like this?
K9: Necessary. Etydions are receivers as well as transmitters. If they are to transmit nothingness, then they must be made to feel nothingness.
STARKEY: So, it’s got to be completely cut off from its own senses.
K9: Affirmative. (Receives call.) Yes, professor?

[The chess room]

GRYFFEN: I think I’ve found your glitch. There appears to be a low-level emitter in the middle digit of the claw. It’s attached to some unidentified DNA.

[Etydion’s room]

K9: Cultured Etydion DNA to amplify the telepathic signal. Ingenious.

(The Etydion looks at Starkey. Starkey touches his head.)

STARKEY: Sorry, mate. Can’t help you. Your neighbours did a job on it a long time ago.

(The lights switch on.)

K9: Quick, hide!

[John’s room]

(A screen switches on, showing the Etydion’s room.)

JUNE: Thorne, what is this? Humans found abducting aliens, sheltering or harvesting tech secrets from an extraterrestrial can be secretly tried and convicted by the Department. You ought to know that better than anyone.
THORNE: You’d think.
JOHN: Abducting? Oh, deary-doodle me, no. The creature offered itself to us. It was frightened and sick when it came here. We gave it the home that it wanted and, in gratitude, it’s given us a means to reach our target audience in ways that we never dreamt possible.
JUNE: Target audience?
JOHN: Children. The future is our children. The VR game was the first point in reaching them. A networked VR broadcast coupled with a mild telepathic signal to draw and hold our audience.
JUNE: For what?
JOHN: For the kind of children that every educator wants. Every parent wants. Good children. Quiet children.
THORNE: And good and quiet children make good and quiet citizens. (John takes a device and turns up a dial. The Etydion writhes.) This is what we’ve both been working for, June. A population that is happy, content and untroubled.
JUNE: Because they can’t think!
THORNE: It’s an overrated pastime.

[Etydion’s room]

(Starkey is drawn towards the Etydion.)

K9: Starkey, don’t show yourself.

[John’s room]

(Starkey appears on the screen.)

THORNE: And where’d Fido?
K9: (Onscreen) Starkey?
THORNE: June, I thought you never worked with children or animals.
K9: (Onscreen) Starkey? Starkey? Release him.

(June receives a call.)

GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) June, we’re losing them. I don’t think it’s an infection anymore. I think it’s bigger than that. I think they’re being changed on a cellular level.
JUNE: Show me.
GRYFFEN: (On vidcom) June…
JUNE: Show me! (Gryffen points the camera towards Darius, who is green and unmoving. Then he does the same for Jorjie. June shows it to Thorne.) Look at it. This is what your broadcast is doing. 20 million children, including my daughter, turning into this. Thorne!
THORNE: Shut it down. Kill the transmission. (John does not move.) Did you hear what I said? Pull the plug!
JOHN: What’s the magic word?
THORNE: Do as your told or I’ll bounce that little head of yours over the room. Is that magic enough for you?
JOHN: 50 million credits.
JUNE: What?
JOHN: 50 million credits. That’s the magic word. Well, words, really. That’s how much I want to end the transmission.
THORNE: You germ. You’re blackmailing me.
JOHN: That’s a very non-wonderful word, Inspector. But, yes, I am. And before you bounce my little head anywhere, remember, I’m the only one who knows how the transmission works.
JUNE: What are you waiting for?
THORNE: I’m not giving in to blackmail.
JUNE: Yes, you are. You’re giving in right now. Authorise the transfer.
THORNE: It’ll bankrupt the Department.
JUNE: We don’t need a Department! There’ll be no human population to protect! Authorise the transfer! Save my daughter.

[The chess room]

(Gryffen returns to the room from the laboratory. Jorjie has spikes growing out of her face.)

GRYFFEN: Oh, no. (Darius does too.) Darius! Jorjie!

(A tear falls down Jorjie’s face.)

[John’s room]

THORNE: Credits will be transferred the moment that the transmission ends.
JOHN: It’s been fantabulastic doing business with you, Inspector.

(John presses buttons on a handheld device.)

JUNE: So, end the transmission.
THORNE: She means, end it now.
JOHN: I’m trying to. (An alarm sounds.) There’s something wrong. The creature won’t respond.

[Etydion’s room]

K9: I’m detecting a massive neurological surge.

(Starkey starts pulling out wires connected to the Etydion’s head.)

[John’s room]

JOHN: I have no control. I have no control. I can’t understand what happened.
JUNE: It outsmarted you. You thought you were playing us, but it was playing you. You never had control of it, either of you.

(June leaves.)

JOHN: You’ll be seeing one of your containment centres from the inside. How’s that for fantabulous?

[Etydion’s room]

K9: Release him. The boy is no threat to you. The threat is this unit if the boy is harmed.

(Starkey holds his head and collapses. June and Thorne enter.)

JUNE: Starkey.
K9: Be careful, June.
THORNE: Good advice. You’ll wish you never left it.
K9: The Etydion is the last of its species. Irreplaceable.
JUNE: You must destroy it.
K9: It’s not dreaming of home. It’s making itself a new one here, populating the Earth with its own kind. But no one Etydion is that powerful. It’s using the DNA in the headsets to amplify the signal.
THORNE: Then it’s time we showed it the door.

(Thorne points a handheld device at the Etydion. The Etydion uses its power to make him collapse. June raises her device and collapses as well.)

K9: You are determined on this course. You are threatening lives. I have no choice but to stop you.

(Starkey fires one of the weapons at K9.)

STARKEY: Sorry, mate.

(Starkey collapses.)

K9: This unit disabled. (June reaches for her device.) Do not reach for the weapon. Armaments offline. I am unable to protect you.
JUNE: Let me show you my home. (She shows the Etydion a video of Jorjie.) This is my daughter. My daughter. Oh, please, don’t take her away from me.

(June sobs. Gryffen appears on her screen.)

GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) Something is happening. The alien DNA has stopped spreading.
K9: The creature is a receiver and transmitter of emotions and it is currently receiving very strongly.
GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) June, it’s working. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.

[The chess room]

(Darius wakes up, cured. Gryffen is examining Jorjie as she stirs.)

GRYFFEN: It’s retreated.

[Etydion’s room]

K9: It is very close to the end.
JUNE: Safe travels.

(The Etydion dies. An orb of light flies from his body.)

[The chess room]

JORJIE: Mum?
DARIUS: Jorjie.

(Gryffen calls June.)

[Etydion’s room]

(June answers the call.)

GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) June, we’ve got our children back.
JORJIE: (Over vidcom) Mum!
JUNE: Home indeed.
GRYFFEN: (Over vidcom) Here she is.

(Jorjie laughs.)

Transcript originally provided by Chrissie. Adapted by TARDIS.guide. The transcripts are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.